Any project undertaken, requires a set of resources that have specialized skills and sufficient experience in executing those skills.
This knowledge area ensures that the project has sufficient amount of resources – with the right skill and required experience. This ensures that the PM is able to oversee a successful project completion.
“This knowledge area ensures that the project has sufficient amount of resources” – expanding a bit on this statement, the term “resources” can be used for labor or equipment/material kind of resources. When planning for the required resources, we plan for – what type of resource and how many resources of that type.
The Human Resources (HR) Management knowledge area consists of 4 process groups across 2 project phases –
Project Management involves managing the people (resources), who would perform the specified tasks. It’s not just about acquiring a pool of resources. It’s about leading those resources effectively and managing them in a manner to get the best out of them, and do the best you can for them to keep them motivated and well aligned to the goal the project is undertaken for.
The human resources required should be allocated to the project as early as possible. This ensures their involvement in the planning process, and assures their commitment to the project.
The first process in Human Resources (HR) Management is Plan Human Resource Management
In this process, the project roles, responsibilities, required skills and reporting relationships are identified and documented, giving birth to the staffing management plan. The staffing management plan includes the staff acquisition and release dates.
The Human Resource Management Plan also includes
- any training needs required for the team / team members,
- what would be the team-building strategies,
- what would be the basis of any recognition programs,
- compliance considerations safety issues that would be identified
Each resource on the project must be attached to a role. This helps eradicate any unambiguity during task assignment and ensures that the resources have a clear understanding of their task(s) in-hand.
A key point to remember when preparing the Human Resource Management Plan is the availability of the required resources, as the same resources might be working on some other project(s) too.
Organization Charts
Function-based
Matrix-based
Roles / Responsibility Definition
A responsibility assignment matrix (RAM), also known as RACI matrix describes the roles required in completing the deliverables for a project -
R Responsible Resource(s) who would perform the actual task
A Accountable Resource(s) who would be deemed answerable
C Consulted Resource(s) whose opinion can/would be sought
I Informed Resource(s) to be provided information
The second process in Human Resources (HR) Management is Acquire Project Team
This process confirms the human resource availability and obtains the resources required to complete project activities.
Acquiring the required personnel is often a tricky part as it would involve negotiation with the party/parties responsible for providing the required number of personnel and skill-set.
This risk of unavailability of required personnel should be thought-through during the early planning stages of the project. In case the required resources are unavailable for the time required on the project, procurement management would come into picture and external resources would be procured taking into account the organization policies.
Pre-assignmentis where the resource(s) know(s) well in-advance that they are expected to work on the project for the required amount of time. This scenario occurs in either of the 3 cases -
- specific resource(s) promised as part of a proposal
- the project is dependent on the expertise of certain personnel
- staffing assignments are included in the project charter
Negotiations often occur when the project manager needs to negotiate with other managers to get the required resources. The ability to influence plays a vital role in negotiating for staffing assignments.
When the required resources – number / skill-set are not available internally, then services from outside providers are acquired temporarily to, to work on the project. These may include acquiring contract employees, consultants, etc.
The PMBOK describes virtual teams as -
a group of people with a shared goal who fulfill their roles with little or no time spent meeting face to face. The availability of communication technology such as e-mail, audio conferencing, social media, web-based meetings and video conferencing has made virtual teams feasible
Using the above mentioned tools and techniques, project staff assignments are done by assigning the resources to the roles defined on the project. These assignments should be well documented in various forms, as required – e.g. a project team directory, names of resources against the tasks in the project management plan, etc.
Resource Calendars as an output document the time that each resource works on the project. It is important that resource calendars be updated with the vacation time as well as the time the resource would be occupied with other project.
The third process in Human Resources (HR) Management is Develop Project Team
This process deals with improving competencies, team member interaction, and overall team environment to enhance project performance. The key benefit is of this process is that it helps “enhance team performance”.
Team Building Activities play a crucial role as they should be designed to help team members work as a single cohesive unit.
Links to a couple of nice articles I flipped thro’ are mentioned below –
Inspire Your Multigenerational Team
http://www.projectmanagement.com/blog/Voices-on-Project-Management/8477/
Five Ways to Empower the Team to Perform at their Best
http://www.projectmanagement.com/blog/Strategic-Project-Management/5153/
Establishing a Culture of Acknowledgment
http://www.projectmanagement.com/blog/Voices-on-Project-Management/8772/
How Successful Leaders Improve Their Team's Performance
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-successful-leaders-improve-their-teams-performance/
Improving Team Performance: Strategies that Work!
http://www.executivebrief.com/article/improving-team-performance-strategies-work/
One of the well-known studies in this area is Bruce Tuckman’s model of group development:
Rewards and Recognition are a vital part of the team building process. Team members feel motivated if they are valued by the organization which they have worked for.
Links to some useful articles in this regard are below –
Recognition and Reward System in the Project Management
http://blog.simplilearn.com/project-management/recognition-and-reward-system-in-the-project-management
Project Team Rewards - Rewarding and Motivating your Project Team
http://team-rewards.de/files/Project_Team_Rewards---eBook_Medium_Quality_%28c%29.pdf?bcsi_scan_ac85d4f4ee253e53=0&bcsi_scan_filename=Project_Team_Rewards---eBook_Medium_Quality_%28c%29.pdf
Reward & Recognition
http://hr.fiu.edu/index.php?name=reward_recognition
Employee Recognition and Reward When Times Are Tough
https://hbr.org/2008/02/employee-recognition-and-rewar-1.html
The fourth process in Human Resources (HR) Management is Manage Project Team
This process deals with monitoring team performance, providing feedback, resolving issues and managing team changes to optimize project performance.
Managing human resources is a complex area as resources can be unpredictable at times. Human resources can give rise to an expected / unexpected conflict, their morale can flicker – due to personal or professional reasons, and some may even choose to leave the project in a haste.
This may have an adverse effect on project:
- Schedule,
- Cost, or
- Quality
Taking into account the above points, a PM should be well equipped with the below skills:
- Communication
- Conflict management
- Negotiation
- Leadership
A nice discussion on communication that I went through on linked in –
Why Communication is so important in global project management? How to communicate with a global team? What type of communication style suit best to deal with them?
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Why-Communication-is-so-important-2775.S.234138663
A bonus -
Effective Project Communication is Critical to Success
http://www.projectmanagement.com/blog/Strategic-Project-Management/5493/
Observations and Conversations help the PM stay abreast about the work ethics and attitudes of the team members. It’s sort of an informal tool that allows the PM’s engagement with the team - observing team behavior, progress towards deliverables, managing conflicts, resolving issues, etc. Human sensitivity quotient is typically expressed in a non-verbal behavior. It is important for the PM to be engaged with the team members and thus, gauge any behavioral traits expressed from any issues that might arise.
Project Performance Appraisals are the one-one meetings with the individual team members with an objective listen to them and provide individual feedback on their project performance.
No project, no matter how well planned it is, can do without conflict management in picture, where there are strict deadlines to be achieved within a pre-defined set of timelines.
Conflicts may arise at any point of time during the project life-cycle. The PM can follow one of the below mentioned routes to tackle conflicts -
The PMBOK specifies leadership, influencing and effective decision-making skills as essential tools in this process.
A nice article I came across while writing on this topic –
Interpersonal Skills More Important as You Climb the Career Ladder
http://www.pmi.org/Learning/professional-development/Career-Central/Interpersonal-Skills-More-Important-as-You-Climb-the-Career-Ladder.aspx
Projects are undertaken for a strategic objective in an organization. Projects are done by “the people” – the team members of the project. For a project to be successful, the team needs to be well-aligned to the strategic objective of the project and the organization, as a whole. The best way is to involve the team and support them well !
I hope you found some nice information in this article. Please feel free to share your views or thoughts on this article. Any feedback is highly appreciated !
Author: Navdeep Joshi (NJ), PMP
Questions on Project Human Resource Management –
1. The best way for the project team members to respond to cultural differences is –
a. Concentrate on one culture only, and make every one follow it
b. Ignore the cultural differences
c. Capitalize on the cultural differences
d. None of the above
c. Capitalize on the cultural differences
2. In which team building stage do teams function as a well-organized unit? Also, in this stage, they are independent and work through any issues smoothly and effectively.
a. Storming
b. Norming
c. Forming
d. Performing
d. Performing
3. The ___________ is responsible for developing an effective project team.
a. The project manager
b. The project team
c. The sponsor
d. None of the above
a. The project manager
4. The objective behind developing a project team is all of the following except :
a. maintaining control over resources involved so that chances of anyone going off point can be minimized and the required deliverables are achieved
b. improving trust and agreement so as to raise the team morale
c. improving knowledge and skills of team members to increase their competency to complete project deliverables successfully
d. improving individual and team culture by creating a dynamic and cohesive team culture
a. maintaining control over resources involved so that chances of anyone going off point can be minimized and the required deliverables are achieved
5. Which of the following is exercised in managing and leading the project team?
a. exhibiting professional and ethical behavior
b. neither of these
c. influencing the project team
d. Both – a and c
d. Both – a and c
6. The objective of these activities is to help individual team members work together more effectively :
a. Individual development
b. Personnel training
c. Team building
d. Interpersonal skills training
c. Team building
7. Interpersonal skills are also referred to as ___________
a. forced skills
b. hard skills
c. soft skills
d. none of the above
c. soft skills
8. Interpersonal skills are also referred to as ___________
a. at the end of the project
b. at specific points throughout the project
c. as an ongoing initiative throughout the life of the project
d. at the start of the project
c. as an ongoing initiative throughout the life of the project
9. A conflict resolution technique that involves searching for solutions that bring some degree of satisfaction to all parties is referred to as ___________
a. Smoothing
b. Confronting
c. Forcing
d. Collaboration
a. Smoothing
10. Which of the following is not a characteristic of conflict and the conflict management process?
a. Conflict is natural and forces a search for alternatives
b. Openness resolves conflict
c. Conflict resolution should focus on issues, not personalities
d. Conflict resolution should focus on personalities, not issues
d. Conflict resolution should focus on personalities, not issues
11. The process of improving the competencies, team interaction and the overall team environment to enhance project performance is referred to as _____________
a. Develop Human Resources Plan
b. Develop Project Team
c. Acquire Project Team
d. Manage Project Team
b. Develop Project Team